


PLPK: First Act

by Kuroshi44



Series: Played Like Piano Keys [2]
Category: D.Gray-man, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Allen Walker Stuffing up the Plot, Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dementors, Kanda Yuu Stuffing up the Plot, M/M, Trauma, read and find out, second in series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-08-20 20:34:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16562687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuroshi44/pseuds/Kuroshi44
Summary: There is a killer on the loose, Prophesies are being told, and Dumbledore is wondering if he isn't too old to deal with the insanity that is two of his second year students.In Other News, Harry really likes Kanda's new pet dog and the trio struggle to maintain friendships outside of themselves.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this was only going to have small changes to the original plot, then I decided that if I was going to make it AU I may as well go all out. Also had to split it because it got so big, this story was originally a one-shot.
> 
> I recommend not reading this unless you have read the third Harry Potter book

For the first two weeks after he had found Mr Walker and Mr Kanda in his office without permission Albus Dumbledore had been frantic trying to keep his school safe, as well as trying to investigate the two first years. He had looked at ministry records, exhausted Muggle resources, asked portraits and ghosts alike if they could shed some light on the two students. Very soon, however, he had had to cease his searching as all sources of information had proved rather unhelpful, or just straight-out confusing. By the end of the third week he was left with the impression that the two boys were somehow a rite of passage, which was informative in some ways and just baffling in others, and informed that he was not the only one taking it.

In the months since the two had woken from petrification they had proven to be rather familiar with the castle and, more specifically, his office. It had become a regular occurrence to walk in and be greeted by the Duo. At one stage he had, just once early on, broken and ended up asking out right.

‘Since you have no issues flaunting that you are not normal, Mr Walker and Mr Kanda, may I enquire who or what you are, and why the Castel seems to be taking your side in the matter?’ he had thought that he handled the question rather admirably.

Allen had smiled innocently, Kanda had ignored him; the boy said nothing, did nothing, without Allen’s permission or insistence. He would never understand their relationship.

‘If the portraits don’t want to tell you, then who am I to break their confidence? I was under the impression it was a game, and that cheating was not allowed.’ One of the portraits, an older one by the name of Fortescue, snorted.

‘Damn right you can’t tell him, he’s been given too much of a head start as it is. It’s not fair; you’re playing favourites.’ The man sounded like a petulant child rather than a leader of a school from many years ago.

‘You’re just upset that you weren’t one of the few who actually figured it out before being told by others afterwards,’ Kanda snorted, he was rather familiar with people once he decided he wasn’t avoiding them. Professor Dumbledore often wondered which of the boys was the larger mystery.

That conversation had been several weeks ago, it had taken place on the last day of school and had resulted in them helping him choose Lupin as a Professor for DADA. Soon after that he had given up on trying to understand Allen Walker and Yuu Kanda.

Of course that didn’t mean that he could avoid them, on the contrary he was once again looking at the two students as they sat in his office without permission. This was made even more amazing as it was currently summer break and there should be no students _at all_ at the school, let alone the two standing before him. They seemed to insist on dropping in for what appeared to be weekly visits.

Currently, Allen appeared to be talking to one of the oldest portraits, the one of the first headmaster after the founders, and Kanda was reading _The Daily Prophet_. After a while the Japanese boy let out a loud snort.

‘He’s finally out, thank God. I was beginning to think that we may have had to do something.’

Professor Dumbledore frowned; the only thing he could be talking about was Serious Black, who had escaped mere days ago with the news having just been put in that edition of the paper. The problem was that twelve year olds, even strange ones, rarely showed such relief at the idea of an escaped convict.

‘Who’s out? And why would you have to do something if he wasn’t?’ It was Allen who answered, unsurprisingly.

‘Black finally stopped hanging around in Azkaban; we were considering breaking him out ourselves if he stayed there much longer. Though I suppose it would be more accurate to say we were going to kidnap him, since we were not intending to give him a choice in the matter. Is it still kidnapping if you take them from a Gaol?’

Professor Dumbledore stared at them; what possible reason could they have for breaking a person who killed thirteen people with one cures and betrayed his friends out of Gaol? Maybe he made a mistake trusting the opinion of the paintings that the two boys meant no harm.

Seeing his look Kanda decided to let him in on the secrete, or this one at least.

‘The idiot is innocent, framed. The real killer was someone else entirely.’

He couldn’t believe it, it didn’t make sense. Surely the real killer would have been revealed by now; surely Black wouldn’t have gone to Azkaban willingly unless he was truly mad and guilty? Why would anyone stay in that place for so long without complaint if they thought they didn’t deserve it? And with the ease he had escaped, wouldn’t he have done it earlier if you could have done it at all?

He also thought about Black’s mutterings before he escaped, he had been saying ‘he’s at Hogwarts’ over and over again. Who else could he be talking about but Harry, the person who killed his master, and cost him everything? How did those words fit in if what was accepted as truth was false, and that reasoning no longer stood to light? Unless…

‘How do you know this?’ the big question, ‘and why haven’t you told anyone? Surely you should have mentioned to someone who the real killer was? Surely you should do so now?’

His statement was met with laughter.

‘Questions, questions, and none that we can answer; somethings you have to find for yourself. Don’t worry; we will help, a little, but people have to be able to grow on their own some of the time.’

‘Just answer me this, is the real killer a threat to my students?’ his students were, and always would be, his major concern.

He watched them look at each other as they thought about the question, the silent communication that seemed to pass between them. He was thankful they were actually considering it rather than dismissing it out of hand.

‘I do not believe so,’ Allen said slowly. ‘If he was going to do anything I think he would have done so long before now, he has had the opportunity. Of course he was never under so much threat before, and scared people tend to act in unpredictable ways.’ The answer didn’t exactly put his mind at ease.

‘You can’t tell anyone that you know this of course,’ Kanda piped up.

‘I know, as much as it pains me to admit it.’ No, he couldn’t tell anyone. If he was to suddenly change his position on the case it would raise suspicion, and he had no proof. It hurt that one of his former students was being hunted like this for a crime he didn’t commit, but some actions would do more harm than good.

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It was only a few weeks later, just after Harry had been safely delivered to Diagon Alley, that Kanda actually asked something of him rather than just talk to portraits.

‘We’re allowed owls, cats, and toads as pets at school, and Moyashi has a snake, so can I have a dog on school grounds?’

Professor Dumbledore looked at him; this was the opportunity he had been waiting for.

‘On one condition; you keep an eye on the students, especially Harry and his friends.’ Looking at Kanda’s frown he continued. ‘You said people do unpredictable things when they are scared, you are right. Since you know so much more than us, would you consider insuring the safety of my students from a killer? That is, without interfering with their growth, of course.’

The boys looked at each other, that silent communication he was getting so used to passing between them.

‘Does that mean that we actually have to ride the train this year?’

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Sirius Black watched as the two boys approached him after Harry had left on the Knight Bus. He held perfectly still as the dark haired one pulled various boxes of food, good human food, out of his bag and appeared to offer it to him. He didn’t know whether to except or to run.

He recognised him, the dark haired one, a few days after he was locked up he had appeared in his cell, but he had looked very different.

He had been a man then, or as close as didn’t matter; the person in front of him now couldn’t have been more than twelve, a year younger than his God Son. He would love to say this this must have been that man’s son, but a son would not have the exact same scar on the back of his hand. This person was wearing normal Muggle cloths, what he had worn back then had looked similar to the mist of an incomplete Patronus wrapped around him; and seemed to have a similar effect as one.

The man then had offered freedom, and had asked why an innocent man had decided he had to suffer. He had answered, even as the man had sneered in a manner reminiscent of Snape the warmth he had brought had loosened his tongue.

Now he was offering help again, but in a different form and with another at his side.

They had laid out the food behind some bushes, where he could shift back into a human and not be seen, they also somehow materialised a bowl of warm water, a cloth and clean clothes.

As he cleaned himself off and ate, the person’s friend, a white haired child, had started talking.

‘My name is Allen Walker, I believe you met my friend Kanda here a few years ago. I know that you are innocent, I know who the real killer is, and I know he is still alive and that that is the reason you have finally broken out Azkaban.

‘We would like to help you, under certain conditions.

‘We will get you into Hogwarts, as Kanda’s Familiar, though you will not be able turn into anything else unless we are there and have specified the place. You will be required to be collared; I apologise for this, but it is the only way to avoid discovery.

‘If we do this you will behave, you will not attack Peter until it is safe to do so, in such a way that no other person will get hurt. We have a plan, we are asking if you wish to witness it and keep an eye on Harry.’

After he was clean and full for the first time in a long time, and after hearing such a wonderful plan, what else could he do but nod in agreement and hold still as they slipped the collar over his head.

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A week had passed since Harry had arrived in Diagon Alley when he saw them, he wasn’t sure if he should be surprised or not.

He was on his way to Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream Parlour to do his homework when he heard a familiar voice. Peering at the two in front he recognised Allen Walker and Kanda Yuu, the two very strange Gryffindors in the year below. From the sound of it they were arguing about the amount of ice-cream they were ordering; Allen appeared to want a rather large serving, Kanda didn’t seem to want any, yet Allen was insisting on getting two.

Harry found himself hanging back instead of barging into the shop, his homework had waited this long, it could wait a little longer.

Last year the two in front of him had caused quite a stir amongst his friends; as well as never seeing one without the other, Harry had also heard a rather disturbing conversation that insinuated that the two were not quite human. Throughout the whole chamber of secrets incident they had done nothing to alleviate the suspicion that was being heaped on them by the other students after Allen proved to speak snake, only being proved innocent when they themselves were added to the list of petrified victims.

And here they were, wondering around Diagon Alley, a place he was not allowed to leave for another two weeks. Harry decided that homework could wait a day while he tried his hand at investigating people.

He watched as the two left the store and wondered off, Allen still trying to convince Kanda about the ice-cream. They didn’t go far before Kanda snatched the offending bit of confectionary and handed it to a woman sitting outside the shop, mumbling something Harry was too far away to hear. The woman laughed and went inside, leaving a pink Kanda and giggling Allen behind.

Harry had never had the opportunity to watch many detective films, but the few he had seen certainly hadn’t made tailing people look this hard. It was one thing to keep the two second years in sight, another to do so without looking suspicious. Everyone was on high alert because of Black so acting like a stalker was probably not a good idea, no matter how famous you were for good actions.

There was one very awkward moment when Harry ran into Kanda, rather literally.

The two boys had entered a suitcase shop (of all things) and Harry had planned to walk in and pretend to look at the merchandise. The plan was cancelled, however, when he failed to notice an annoyed Kanda storming back out of the shop almost as soon as he had entered. The head on collision was not enjoyable, neither was falling to the ground or being glared at with such intensity that he had to wonder why he wasn’t on fire yet.

‘Kanda, come on, he said he needed a new case and this is the best shop …’ Allen’s voice trailed off as he saw the position the two were in. The boy seemed to be tossing up on whether to be amused or exasperated, but not even that would stop his manners. ‘Good afternoon, Mr Potter, do you require some assistance?’

Harry was on the verge of denying so and running for the hills, when he realised that Allen was referring to the fact that he was currently sprawled on the ground rather awkwardly and asking if he needed a hand up. He found himself grumbling an acceptance, and soon he was on his feet again.

‘Were you looking for a new trunk as well? I would have thought yours would be good for a few more years, unless you are getting a present the same as we are?’ Harry silently marvelled at the boy’s ability to act like it was completely normal to see a person from school lying on the pavement after being run into by his friend, then again for all he knew it _was_ a common occurrence for him.

‘Er, well, you never know when you’re going to need more space for school books,’ he replied lamely and wondered, with the amount of practise he got, why his ability to make up excuses was so poor.

Allen was still smiling politely (Harry wondered if he ever stopped) but his lips twitched in a way that made Harry think he was fighting laughter.

‘Well, since were all together, I don’t suppose that you would be interested in exploring the street with us? There are quite a few interesting shops, and since our interests have appeared to be rather similar this last day perhaps you would enjoy accompanying us?’ Allen replied.

Harry felt his cheeks warm up in embarrassment; apparently he hadn’t been near as subtle in his investigation as he had hoped.

But now he had a choice. To keep following and looking suspicions with the advantage of separation from the two really creepy second years, or walk with them like a normal person and possibly expose himself to things better left alone.

They were secretive, strange, unlikely to be human, spoke to snakes, and were so close it constantly gave the impression they were plotting something; maybe murder. These were the kinds of people Harry usually avoided for fear of assassination attempts.

And yet …

He wanted information; he needed to know if they were really a threat or just same amount of strange as most Wizards seemed to be. Following discretely was apparently not an option, and while hanging around with them posed a small risk, it also offered a closer view and alternate opinion to what he would get as a complete outsider.

What was that ridiculously clichéd line? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. They had been a little friendly with Hermione last year before several incidents that had caused no small amount of tension between the groups, maybe forming a friend ship was the way to go.

As they walked around, he noticed that Kanda was a little more sullen than he had been at school; he put it off to the boy not liking crowds. That night they were in the restaurant of the leaky cauldron, and he found out that there was a bit more to Kanda’s annoyance than that.

‘Are you staying here as well?’ Harry asked.

‘Unfortunately,’ Kanda muttered.

‘Any particular reason?’ harry suspected he sounded nosy, but really couldn’t care.

‘A bribe,’ Allen sighed, ‘due to the recent upheaval it was deemed safer for us to stay around here, so we were offered an exchange to do so.’

Harry couldn’t respond to that.

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	2. Chapter 2

At Gringotts the next day all three of them had to withdraw money, Harry was a little disappointed when the other two made sure to get a different cart to him. He did make note that they shared a vault, and that the goblins knew then by name. Apparently the little creatures could be friendly when it was in their best interest.

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Kanda glared at the broom as Harry stared at through the window at it in a short of daze.

‘How can you not love it? It’s the fasted broom on the market!’ he said in the same hurt voice a person got when their crush was insulted. Kanda snorted.

‘We have a … friend … that makes us customized brooms that are ten times faster than any other heap of junk out there.’ Harry looked at him, highly offended, and wondering just what kind of connections the boys had.

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Harry watched as Allen bought several packets of Snake treats and offered one to the scaled head that was poking out from his robes.

‘What’s its name?’ he asked out of curiosity.

‘Maria, it’s a girl,’ Allen replied. The store owner was looking a little uncomfortable, more so when Harry hissed at the snake.

‘ _Hey, Maria,’_ he said, _‘I take it you enjoy being with Allen?’_

Harry swore that the snake was looking at him like he was beneath her despite the lack of expressive features. His suspicions were confirmed with her words. 

‘ _Insolent one,’_ she hissed. Allen laughed at Harry’s expression as Maria tucked her head back into his robes.

That had to be the strangest rejection from a girl he had ever received.

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Harry stared as Allen ran from the pub, grabbed his hand, and kept on running as several hexes followed. The boy just laughed and tucked a deck of cards into his robes.

Harry suddenly understood why the boy was in Gryffindor, not even the Weasley twins were brave enough to gamble on cards.

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Harry stared as Allen and Kanda bought various potion ingredients he knew from Fred and George where expensive components of several joke formulas. He raised an eyebrow when they were divided into two packs and sent off with a note saying it was from “secrete sponsors”. Allen grinned at him.

‘Fred, George, and Peeves are very annoying and to be avoided at all costs. That said, they are also an excellent source of entertainment.

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‘Why do you not like Ron? I mean, you only talked to him twice that I know of,’ Harry said in exasperation.

Allen looked at him with unreadable eyes, Kanda snorted (his apparent default response) and replied in a very annoyed voice.

‘He stole my favourite quill after I lent it to a class mate. He also insulted us the first time we met and called us evil Snakes every time he passed us in the hall last year because Allen is a parselmouth and because Professor Snape didn’t hate us.’

Harry couldn’t really to response to that, it would be very hard to defend his friend based on that evidence.

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Hermione and Ron were eating ice-cream holidays when they spotted Harry and went to call out to him, then they hesitated. It was the last day of the holidays and they had spent most of it trying to find their wayward friend, now they saw him with Allen and Kanda standing outside the Quality Quidditch Supplies. Considering all the reservations they had had about the two the year before, and the fact that a serial killer was on the loose, they were rather surprised at the three of them being together to say the least.

They had a silent discussion about what to do, and in the end they decided that talking to Harry was worth putting up with the duo. As it turned out they needn’t have worried, however, as the two now second-year boys noticed them before they could call out, pointed Harry in the right direction, and wondered off with a cheery wave.

‘What’s with those two?’ Ron was blunt as ever.

‘They decided it would be nice to let us catch up without an audience, apparently,’ Harry said. ‘Also, Kanda apparently has an issue with your family, Ron, after last year.’ Harry explained the duo’s hasty retreat, leaving out that it was less his family and more Ron himself the two didn’t like. Last year the twins had asked if Kanda was a girl along with Ron’s behaviour, so the excuse had merit any way. Ron went red at the reminder of his family’s previous actions.

‘Yes, but why were they with you in the first place?’ Hermione clarified the, in her opinion, important question. ‘I though we agreed they were really suspicious.’

‘They decided to keep me company since all three of us are staying in the Leaky Cauldron. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try and figure them out.’

Hermione congratulate him on this plan, quoting the exact same quote to him that he had used himself. From there they discussed holidays, the next school year, and Hermione’s new pet.

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After Harry had had his little conversation with Mr Weasley, and had had to dash towards the train to avoid missing it, his mind was too busy with thoughts of a serial killer, and how to tell his friends, to think about the strange duo. After the conversation had finally finished they had been too preoccupied with the new teacher, Hogsmeade, and the unfortunate incident with the Dementor to be concerned with much else.

It was only as Ron was walking into the Great Hall and saw the two boys already sitting at the Gryffindor table that he realised that, even though they had searched the train for a free carriage they hadn’t seen either of them.

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Harry was watching Allen and Kanda as Dumbledore explained about the Dementors, so he watched both boys cringe and get a little paler as he talked. Thinking about his own experience with the one on the train he thought he understood the sentiment.

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At breakfast the next morning they sat next the two boys after Malfoys ridiculous show. After George’s statement Allen started talking a little louder than normal, loud enough to carry over to the Slytherins.

‘You know what I can’t stand? Hypocrites,’ Kanda raised his eyebrow, ‘hypocrites and people who make fun of others when they have no idea what they are talking about.’

‘You mean like a person who is scared of a Dementor, and then makes fun of someone else just because they happen to be tougher than them?’ Kanda still had his eyebrow raised.

The room was quieter now, so everyone heard Malfoy when he snorted and lifted one side of his mouth before talking. ‘And how does a person who faints at the site of a floating clock classify as tough?’ Suddenly Kanda’s expression was mirroring the blond hair boy as he explained.

‘The more extreme a reaction to a Dementor it means the more horrific your past is. If someone faints, to use your example, then it means they should be congratulated for still being sane. In contrast a person who nearly wets them self is nothing more than a pampered brat who knows nothing about real strength, and is probably nothing more than a mother’s boy.’

Malfoy went bright red.

‘How dare you insult me like that?’ he nearly screamed.

‘He never said anything about you; he was merely making an example.’ Allen spoke up from next to his dark haired friend. ‘If you can relate to what he said to enough to mistakenly think he was referring to you … then I am afraid that is your concern and has nothing to do with us.’ No one knew quite what to say to that, but no one mentioned Harry fainting ever again.

Slowly everyone went back to their schedules and breakfast.

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After their horrific first day they stayed up that night in the Gryffindor common room and decided to talk to Allen and Kanda, following Harry’s plan of becoming friends in order to keep an eye on them. It was then that they met Kanda’s new familiar.

‘What the bloody hell is that!’ Ron yelled as a _very_ large dog came wondering into the room and just looked at them. Harry was staring at it with a rather strange look on his face.

‘It’s my familiar.’ Kanda snorted.

‘That thing looks like the ruddy Grimm! Can’t either of you two have a _normal_ familiar?’ Kanda glared at the red head.

During the conversation the dog in question had wondered over to Harry and placed his head on his legs, much like Fang tended to, and looked up at him with large, dark, eyes opened wide. There was a lot of intelligence in those eyes.

‘He likes you,’ stated Allen. ‘You can pat him you know, he doesn’t bite.’ Slowly Harry followed Allen’s prompting and watched the dog close his eyes in bliss as he ruffled his ears.

‘What’s his name?’ Hermione said, finally looking up from one of her many books.

‘Padfoot,’ Kanda said.

Suddenly there was an intense wriggling from Ron’s pocket. The dog, Padfoot, looked at the lump as if it wanted to pounce, Kanda glared at him and he settled back down, but his eyes never moved from that lump.

‘Have you ever been near Privet Drive in Little Whingeing, Surrey?’ Harry asked after several minutes of silence, still patting Padfoot.

‘Yes we have, once,’ Allen said with a tilt of his head. ‘We were there a few weeks before school started seeing a friend, why?’

‘No reason.’ Harry said as he looked away from the dog awards Ron.

They all went to bed soon after, leaving Padfoot to lie next to the fire with Maria to “keep him out of trouble.”

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Harry, Hermione and Ron spent the rest of the week trying to keep an eye on Allen, Kanda and Padfoot, or Harry kept an eye on Padfoot as he had grown rather fond of the dog. The only interesting thing happened on Thursday towards the end of their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson.

The Boggart was just heading towards Harry when the class was disturbed by a knock on the door and the creaking of hinges. A small voice was heard saying something along the lines of “sorry to interrupt” before the Boggart gave a _crack_ before flying towards the widening gap in the door. The gap had just gotten large enough that they could see the scared face and white hair of Allen Walker when the Boggart went flying through and hit the boy in the chest, causing him to step back a bit on impact.

Allen then looked around the room with the sort of resigned look a person got when they asked a question they already knew the answer to.

‘That was a Boggart, wasn’t it?’ Lupin nodded with a look that clearly asked what the hell had just happened. Allen sighed, ‘I’m sorry, I may have just ruined your lesson. I know from experience that when a Boggart lodges itself in my cloths it doesn’t tend to come out without a lot coaxing. Please accept my humble apologies for appropriating your Boggart.’ The boy gave a half bow before he continued.

‘The reason I interrupted your class was because Madam Pomfrey had asked me to tell you, Professor Lupin, that she would like to see you as soon as possible. That was all, I apologies once again for interrupting, and for stealing your Boggart. Goodbye.’ And with that the Allen left, leaving a rather stunned and confused third-year class and teacher in his wake.

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The next few weeks passed in much the same manner as the first when it came to the trio watching Kanda and Allen, with only one major difference.

They were now famous. During their first year it had come to light that Allen was a parselmouth, highlighting him as a possible heir of Slytherin, but that was nothing compared to this.

Rumours spread around the school concerning the incident with the Boggart, made worst when the white haired boy sent a tightly sealed box that rattled via Owl Post to his “family” and refused to state what was in it. Many people had made bets that it was the Boggart in question, though no-one knew how he would have gotten it into the box to begin with.

After several weeks the whispers died down, but now everyone knew who the two second-years were, and that they weren’t quite normal.

Sometime after the boggart the trio had started making a list of all the unusual things that happened. One was that Padfoot seemed to be unusually friendly with Crookshanks, and both seemed to share a deep hatred for Scabbers; Harry didn’t like adding Padfoot to the list because the dog was extremely fond of Harry and vice versa, but Ron insisted it was wired and Scabbers couldn’t be to blame as he was old and well know so it must have been the _other_ animals fault. Second was the wide eyed and opened mouth look that Professor Lupin had given Kanda when he was walking the dog on a leash, and Kanda’s knowing smirk that he gave in response; it should be noted that the trio was no longer the only one keeping a close eye on the second-years and their dog. Third was that, while the boys were happy to hang around them when they were all in the common room, they seemed extremely well adapt to avoiding Harry and the others when it came to them trying to catch them unawares.

Other than those, rather minor in comparison to some things that went on around the school, variations the boys were model students.

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Remus Lupin looked at the letters and photos sitting on his desk. He had just seen Sirius Black, or Padfoot as he and his friends had known him and as the black haired child had introduced him, sitting in the school corridor pretending to be a familiar. He had just come from a very unsatisfactory meeting with the Headmaster were he tried to convince the man that a mass murder was masquerading as a familiar. The headmaster had smiled, nodded, said he would “take care of it” and evicted him from the office. When he arrived at his own office he had found an envelope addressed to him, the contents were probably the most shocking news he had ever heard.

One of the things it contained a clipping from the _Daily Prophet_ with a one toed rat circled in red, a very familiar one toed rat that he thought had been dead for twelve years. Another was a letter detailing events that he had no idea about, and a plan that would help him get revenge for one friend and clear the name of another.

All he had to do was keep silent; and he could do that, couldn’t he?

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They were walking from Transfiguration after the not so successful attempt to convince Professor McGonagall to let Harry to go to Hogsmead. Harry was not so subtly mopping when Hermione made a rather relevant comment in an attempt to cheer him up.

‘Well think of it this way, Harry, Allen and Kanda are only second years so they won’t be going either. This means you can try and figure then out while it’s just the three of you.’

Harry wasn’t so sure that was better than going to Hogsmead with his friends but decided not to comment.

The week of the Hogsmead visit came and Harry dutifully tried to track down the Duo of Black and White (as he and his friends had taken to calling them when they weren’t around) but failed rather spectacularly. Padfoot was sitting in front of the fire and came over for a pat, but the other two were no where to be seen.

Cursing to himself he sat down with Padfoot, at least he didn’t abandon him to go have fun. Eventually he decided to walk around the school with the dog, which led to an interesting encounter with Professor Lupin.

Of course, that day was Halloween, and wouldn’t be complete without _something_ going wrong if you followed the pattern of the last two years. While many people could argue that missing Hogsmead and not being able to investigate would be bad enough, fate saw fit to prove them wrong as Harry was forced to miss the feast due to being in the hospital wing with a broken leg after an unfortunate tripping hex caused him to fall down the stairs on his way to the hall.

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	3. Chapter 3

The Quidditch game was something Harry was looking forward to, it took his mind of the duo of black and white, their new and incredible friendly dog, and the fact that no one had seen or heard anything from Black since the beginning of the school term.

Unfortunately things didn’t go quiet as planned thanks to the intervention of the Dementors.

He was glad that of the hundred Dementors down below only some of them were interested in him, it was still enough to make him faint however. As he passed out and started hearing the screaming again, he couldn’t help noticing that the other Dementors seemed to be very interested in something else.

It was only when he woke up in the hospital wing surrounded by his friends and saw the second person sitting on a bed and completely unresponsive that he realised what, or who, they had been so interested in.

Allen Walker.

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Kanda was watching Harry chase a Snitch when he suddenly felt cold, he turned just in time to see a lot Dementors swarming the pitch.

Dementors that were homing in on his Moyashi.

Kanda cursed, none of the teachers had noticed where the Dementors attention was fixed; they were distracted by something else. Beside him he felt the Moyashi suddenly go limp and heard the Sirius start whining, neither would be any help. He briefly spared a thought to be grateful that Maria had waited in the dormitory, not wanting to put up with the cold and rainy weather, before he put his mind to more important things.

 _Happy thoughts, happy thoughts; try and stay conscious._ He could feel the images starting to niggle away at him; the sounds and smells starting encroach onto his consciousness. _Think of Moyashi smiling,_ the image of Allen Walker grimacing in pain tried to eclipse this thought.

The Dementors were getting closer, Moyashi wasn’t moving. If someone didn’t notice soon then cover or not he would have to cast a Patronus.

Finally, the teachers noticed that many of the Dementors were stalking the stands, he vaguely heard them casting spells to try and block the Dementors from their path, but they weren’t strong enough. The incomplete Patronus that had been cast was not enough to deter the Dementors from the beacon that was the Moyashi’s suffering.

It was enough, however, to clear Kanda’s head and disguise his own.

He thought about the Moyashi, Allen Walker, and the first time he had held him properly. He held the memory of the first time they had been one, in every sense, that night under the stars. That was the memory he used to cast his perfect Patronus just as that scaly hand came out from under the cloak to tilt Allen’s head back and another grabbed it’s hood in order to kiss him.

The _thing_ reared back and left with the others to go and talk to Dumbledore, but the only thing he was worried about was Allen, his Moyashi with his eyes wide open and unseeing. He didn’t have time to worry; he had to get his Allen to the Hospital Wing.

He gathered the boy into his arms, and felt his stomach turn at the way he head rolled to the side, his body limp against his chest. Only _one_ of the teachers and the students directly beside them had noticed, it appeared that Allen wasn’t the only one affected. When they saw that he was already taking charge they left him to it and concentrated on the other person.

Madam Pomfrey went almost as white as Allen when she realised just how bad the boy was, Kanda hadn’t noticed but his eye was crying blood as well.

The woman started talking about St. Mungose and preparing chocolate for Harry when he finally woke up as Kanda started carefully removing Allen’s robes; revealing the loose dark grey cloths he had on underneath. He then sat in front of him and held his hands as he waited for him to come to, which was also when the teachers finally understood from Madam Pomfrey that their “chosen one” wasn’t the worst one off, and came to talk to him about what had happened.

This would be fun.

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As Harry’s friends came to tend to him, Dumbledore and the other teachers turned to the bed not too far away on which Allen Walker was sitting. The boy was so frighteningly pale that it made his scar and the streak of blood on his cheek stand out like they never had before. His eyes were open, but glazed in a way that made it obvious that he wasn’t seeing them; instead he was locked in a world of nightmares, and they must be bad to induce a reaction like this.

Dumbledore didn’t know which of his emotions was more prevalent; the idea that anyone would have experience something so bad to cause this, or that they had been forced to relive it because those damn Dementors insisted on disobeying him. They had nearly killed Harry, but Professor Flitwick had reported seeing that one of them had nearly _kissed_ Allen, and that was worst then death.

But looking at the boy part of him wondered if they had, indeed, managed to do so.

‘Mr Kanda,’ Madam Pomfrey began, ‘you need to return to your dormitory, the nurses from St. Mungose will be hear soon to pick him up.’

‘I’m not going anywhere, and neither is he.’ Dumbledore, and the other teachers, were slightly surprised by his flat out refusal.

It was Hermione who spoke from her place next to Harry’s bed, the other students had finally realised there was something drastically wrong with the second year.

‘Kanda, you have to see that he needs treatment. Madam Pomfrey is saying that it would be better for him if they take him to the hospital.’

‘There’s no point; he’ll wake up in a few hours anyway, besides, he’ll panic if I’m not there when he does.’ They looked at him, he said it so calmly.

‘Has this happened before?’ Lupin asked.

‘Why do you think we had to be escorted onto school grounds surrounded by Patronus?’ he had such a sarcastic tilt to his voice, the words were dripping venom. ‘Dementors are drawn to those that have suffered, he acts like a beacon. What, you thought the scar was a fashion statement did you?’

Dumbledore remembered the way they had reacted when he had informed them that the school would be surrounded by Dementors as a precaution. While they had hinted that they had never ridden the train, that was when they flat out refused to do so that year.

Though he noticed that Kanda had never actually answered the question.

They had many questions for Kanda, so much they needed to know about in regard to what had happened, but Madam Pomfrey decided to intervene. She noticed that Kanda was paler than normal as well and handed him chocolate before telling the teachers that they could come back later and pulling the curtains semi closed.

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Harry was in the middle of trying to go back to sleep when he heard the scream. When he looked over at Allen it was obvious the boy was the cause of the noise.

He had thrown himself at Kanda, into the other boy’s arms with his head pressed into the crook of his neck as the (slightly) taller boy cradled the back of his skull and rubbed his lower back and murmured words he couldn’t quite make out as the scream turned into heat breaking sobs.

Madam Pomfrey came out with a shocked look on her face, and something that may have been relief when she noticed that Allen was actually conscious. She placed a block of chocolate on the bed side table with a meaningful look at Kanda before she disappeared, probably to tell the headmaster that the boy was actually alive. Ron had relayed the conversation that had happened when he was unconscious.

Finally the sobbing stopped and Kanda started force feeding the boy chocolate. Dumbledore came in and told Madam Pomfrey that the boys were to be sent to his office as soon as they were well enough.

As night approached, and throughout the rest of the nights that followed during the time he was forced to stay in the hospital wing, he couldn’t help noticing that while his friends were made to leave the only thing she asked of Kanda was that he not put his shoes on the bed.

And if his nightmares were bad, it was nothing compared to waking up listening to Allen’s scream so eerily mirroring his mothers.

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‘I know that what happens when a Dementor attacks can be considered a personal thing for some, but you will understand that I need answers in order to insure the school is safe. I also need something to explain what happened to the other teachers.’ Dumbledore’s voice was calm and steady, something that surprised even him.

This was the first time the boys had been in his office by invitation, both were sitting down and Allen was still pale. It seemed that Kanda would be the one to answer him that day.

‘Easy, Moyashi has some things in his past that would drive a man insane, and did when they first occurred. Dementors, being the disgusting things they are, sense that and seek him out. Normally Moyashi can keep these things at bay and seem normal by clinging to every other good thing in his life, Dementors make that impossible. Once the Dementors attack he loses the ability to remember what “good” even means, so he goes into a catatonic state where he relives every bad memory he has, and he has a lot of them. This goes on until something brings him out of it, what that something is I can’t tell you, but it’s not a danger to the school.’

‘And the blood tears, what caused that? It has some of the students very stirred up, especially those that come from religious muggle families.’

Now Kanda hesitated, looking at Allen Walker for guidance and waiting for the nod that he received.

‘Last year Moyashi told you about the Hoarcrux, and that a soul was manipulating that girl, the blood tear sort of ties in with that.’

‘Can you be a little more specific, please?’

‘The scar on his eye is a curse that allows him to see the souls of those misplaced, that includes the ones your Dementors consume. The images are so horrific and the souls so tortured that the only way the cures can react is to cause pain and start bleeding, resulting in blood tears.’

Dumbledore felt sick, the idea of being able to _see_ those that Dementors had consumed …

Kanda stood up, apparently understanding that he wasn’t in much of a fit state to continue the conversation.

‘If the nurse asks what caused the trauma tell her Moyashi was kidnapped and tortured as a child by muggles. Tell her she can see the scars if she likes.’

With those last words the dark haired child left with a surprisingly submissive Allen.

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Harry watched as Malfoy mimicked falling off a broom, unfortunately so did Allen and Kanda. They were also, unfortunately, there when Malfoy decided to do an impression of being brain dead; calling them “unamused” would be like calling an Alligator a small reptile.

‘Mr Malfoy,’ Allen suddenly called across the room, ‘I do believe I told you what I thought of people who made fun of things they do not understand, but seeing as you have forgotten over the last few months maybe I should give you another lesson that leaves more of an impression? Think carefully about your answer, I would hate for you to lose your miraculously healed arm.’ No one was quite sure what was scarier, the obvious threat or the fact that it was delivered with a smile.

‘Are you threatening me? My father will hear of this!’ Malfoy spluttered.

‘Normally I would say no I am not, however, I am rather irate at the moment and am not thinking clearly. And I wouldn’t rely on the powers of others so often, Mr Malfoy, or you may end up dragging them along with you into waters were all of you are unable to swim.’

No one knew quite what to say to that, not even Malfoy, though it didn’t stop him from trying to regain control of the situation.

‘So, since I failed to learn, how were you intending to make it stick? It’s not like you can actually do anything. Besides, what are you going to do to my arm, break it? Madam Pomfrey would have it fixed in seconds.’

‘I was thinking of showing you exactly what you would have to survive in order to react the way you were imitating just now in the presence of Dementors. If I was to use your body to give a physical demonstration I think you would get though about half before your heart gave out. If I was to use the transfer of memories, more likely as I would never inflict much of that on any human no matter how disgusting, I believe you would get through a third before the cost of the therapy required to allow you to appear even semi-sane again would equal your parents’ entire fortune.’ Everyone was shivering now, and Allen still hadn’t stopped smiling.

‘Your insane,’ Malfoy gasped as he gaped like a fish, and he was as pale as the belly of one as well.

‘Currently? Yes I am; you would be too if you had been forced to relive the worst parts of your life, of which I have many. So I suggest that you don’t test me at the moment, I will not be held responsible for my reactions.’

No one mentioned the Dementors, or how people reacted, in Allen’s presence ever again. Most because they didn’t understand what he was talking about (Harry and Ron), and a few because they knew the enormity of what he was not so subtly hinting at.

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When Harry was discussing Dementors with Professor Lupin, Allen came up twice. The first time was when they were talking about the effect a Dementor had, the second was when they were talking about why they were at the match.

‘And the worst that has happened to you, Harry, is enough to make anyone fall of their broom. You have nothing to be ashamed of.’

Harry bit his lip before telling lupin what it was he heard, but before the man could react he kept talking. 

‘If they do that to me, if they force me relive my parents deaths and make me pass out, then what must Allen relive to make him go the way he does? How bad would it have to be?’

Lupin looked even more sick than he had when Harry had mentioned hearing Lily get murdered.

‘I wouldn’t even try to guess, and I would not want to be the one to experience it. Something to make you react like that … it would break a person.’

‘Why did they have to come to the match?’ Harry knew he sounded angry, he was for so many reasons.

Lupin explained about them being hungry, but then he added something more.

‘They feed of happy emotion and are attracted by the bad; Mr Kanda, you know Allen’s friend, he said that Allen has a past so horrible that it acts like a beacon, and if he has enough happy memories to keep him somewhat sane I am not surprised. Between the two the match would have been irresistible.’

From there they talked about Azkaban and fighting Dementors, but the conversation never really left his mind

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	4. Chapter 4

Even as Harry conversed with the twins he couldn't help thinking that one of the Messrs had the same name as Kanda's familiar. The question got even more confusing when he bumped into someone on his way through the tunnel.

As he was walking around a particularly sharp turn he ran straight into Yuu Kanda who was coming from the other direction, who then was run into the back of by Allen Walker.

'What the hell?' the Japanese boy exclaimed.

'Harry?' asked a rather startled Allen once he had his feet back under him. 'What are you doing here?'

'I could ask you the same question,' Harry mumbled, suddenly remembering that the boys had been absent the last time the weekend had been held.

'Found out last year that the one behind the mirror was blocked.' Kanda stated in reply.

Harry could only stare at them. They were second years, they didn't even get permission notes until they were in third, yet Kanda spoke so calmly about the other passage that was blocked and claimed to have known since the year before?

'You … know about the passages?'

'Course, how else would we have snuck out every Hogsmead Weekend last year? Though we nearly didn't make the first one, too busy stuffing around with the other sealed tunnel.'

Harry was gobsmacked.

'If that's all, we need to get back to feed Padfoot. Nice seeing you, Harry.' And with that comment, said by Allen, they were disappearing again, back the way Harry had come.

Harry continued his trip in a bit of a daze.

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The duo was brought to Harry's mind a lot sooner than expected, in the form of the conversation between the teachers and the Minister when the subject of Dementors was breached. At first they had just been discussing Blacks ability to just disappear after his escape, and also that they were sure he would turn up eventually, when the conversation turned to ones that were hunting him.

'I should think not. How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around? Besides, didn't you get the owl that Dumbledore sent?' McGonagall looked rather surprised.

'What owl was that, Minerva dear?' this was news to Fudge.

'Those things tried to Kiss one of the students! The boy was only a second year.'

'That's ridiculous, why would it do that? Was the boy doing something at the time?'

'He was watching a Quidditch match. According to his friend they seek him out because he has a lot of trauma in his past. When they came near the boy went, what's the muggle term, Catatonic.'

'What would a twelve year old have to experience to have a reaction that bad?'

'Dumbledore knows,' Flitwick suddenly spoke up, 'and Poppy, but both say that they will keep the boys' confidence. Whatever it was it must have been bad to cause a reaction like that, in them and in him.'

'We'll all the same,' Fudge muttered, 'they are here to protect you all from something much worse …'

Soon after Harry forgot all his questions such as what it meant to be "kissed" by a Dementor because of the rather infuriating things he was about to learn about the man these people were chasing.

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As much as the three had tried to investigate the duo over the last months they had had no success. Anything that came up was more a tease than a help, asking more questions and answering none. It didn't help that they had so many things to do, Sirius getting out, his past – and now apparent disappearance, homework, looking up Hagrid's case, and so many other little things that Allen and Kanda got pushed to the back on their minds. They didn't even notice, at first, that they had stayed for the Christmas holidays, until Christmas morning that was.

Despite claiming that they would be friends at the beginning of the school year they had really done a terrible job at it, though Harry still found a measure of comfort from Padfoot sitting at his feet in the common room.

As they were all sitting down for Christmas lunch, just the fourteen of them, Professor Trelawney decided to show up. She mumbled something about crystal gazing as she looked around the room, when her eyes fell on Kanda and Allen her face went blank.

For Harry it was a rather curious thing to watch, and also incredibly frightening. She lost all expression on her face and her eyes started to roll back in her head as her whole body went ridged and looked like it was about to collapse in on itself. None of the students knew what to do and the teachers looked like they were in shock at her sudden behaviour.

Then she started speaking, her voice was harsh and loud and so completely different from normal people couldn't quite believe it was her.

' _The destroyer of time shall be needed again. When one war ends another dawns, as is the cycle. Someone stirs the coals that shall burn the world, and ghosts shall rise again. Only he who destroys time, who alters what has been and what should be, only he and the family that follows can prevent our utter destruction. Only the … clown can … save … us … all …_ '

Professor Trelawney trailed off, for a moment it looked like she was about to come out of her trance, then suddenly she was exactly like she had been at the beginning and she started to speak once more.

' _It will happen in the new year. The dark lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. In the new year, before the first month dies, the servant will break free and set out to re-join his master. The dark lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. The new year … before the first month dies … the servant … will set out … to re-join … his master…'_

Her head fell forward and then she was looking at them all in confusion, they intern looked at her as if they were having a fly catching competition with their mouths.

'What did you just say?' Professor McGonagall finally managed to gasp out.

'That I saw myself coming here while crystal ball gazing.' Professor Trelawney stated, as if she thought McGonagall had gone quite mad.

'No, after that.' McGonagall said a bit more sharply than she intended. Now Trelawney was looking at her as if she was positive that she had lost it. If Harry hadn't been so spooked by what had just happened he would have thought it funny.

'I didn't say anything after that. I only just finished telling you that, so I haven't had time to say anything else. Are you sure you maybe haven't had a bit too much to drink, Dear?' now everyone was once again having a fly catching competition. Harry didn't know which statement they found more shocking. Finally Snape decided that someone should fill the pour woman in, an unprecedented display of kindness from Harry's perspective.

'You appear to have given us a prophesy, two in fact. It is quite normal for seers to not remember making such predictions. Maybe you should sit down? I imagine foretelling such absolute doom must be tiring.' Snape sneered as he offered her his chair, a rather startled looking seer graciously accepted.

'I believe we should finish eating rather quickly. After lunch I shall need to see all the teachers in my office to discuss what we have just been told, and to inform the ministry of these rather disturbing predictions.' Harry couldn't help thinking that Trelawney looked rather smug at the thought of her predictions being disturbing.

After lunch Harry he was justified in being mad at Professor McGonagall and Hermione for finding time to confiscate his broom despite the massive events that had happened.

He also thought that maybe they should start putting more effort into investigation the black and white duo. After all, that was where Trelawney was looking when she first started to make prophesies, and while it may have been coincidence he didn't think so.

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Dumbledore walked away from his office and sighed. While the second prophesy could be taken as straight forward, none of the teachers had a clue as to what the first had been about. No one knew anything about this "Destroyer of Time" or this war he would be vital for. The only comfort they could get was that, by the sound of it, this war would only begin once the one with Voldemort had ended.

It was as he was strolling around that he came across a rather interesting scene. Allen Walker was sitting against a wall and either raging or sobbing, he couldn't tell, and getting comforted by Yuu Kanda and the Ghosts of the castle. None of them noticed him.

'I am retired; they can't do this to me. I'm way too old for these shenanigans. And what kind of idiot would stoke those coals? And if it's so soon how come I didn't know about it sooner? Damn those idiots, higher powers be damned just let me retire in peace!'

Nicholas seemed to be the first one to react to this last statement.

'Unfortunately, Mr Walker, destiny was never one to accept the retirement of her pawns. Look at us! We're dead and buried yet still we continue to impact the lives of young wizards while we haunt the school.'

Allen mumbled something that sounded like "I'm older than you" but Dumbledore managed to convince himself that he had merely miss heard.

'Besides, Allen,' the Grey Lady was the surprising contributor this time, 'You have long been marked as the saviour, and you cannot abandon the world now in its time of need.'

'The world needs a new fucking saviour.' The boy growled; Dumbledore was shocked at the inappropriate word passing the polite boys lips.

Kanda just laughed.

'They have one, Moyashi, Harry Potter remember? But it needs one that's not human to deal with the threats that surpass mortal comprehension. Or are you too thick to understand that?'

'I am not thick, Bakanda! I am smarter than you.'

Just then the meeting was interrupted by Peeves loud call and the arrival of him and Moaning Myrtle. Kanda suddenly had a wicked gleam in his eyes that over the months of unannounced visits the Headmaster had learnt to associate with trouble.

'I found her, Master Kanda,' said an unusually demure Peeves. 'I brought her just like you asked.'

'Excellent. Moyashi, meet Moaning Myrtle, I don't believe she was here the last time we attended. She's relatively new, only died about fifty years ago.'

Allen looked up with his brightest smile and held out a hand. 'It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Myrtle. I am sorry for not introducing myself sooner, but I make it a habit not to enter Girls bathrooms.'

Myrtle stared at the offending hand as if thinking that he was obviously trying to insult her by rubbing in the fact that she was dead. Eventually deciding to humour the boy she reached out in the greeting of her childhood when she was still living among living Muggles.

The look on her face when living flesh met her Ghostly hand was something that Dumbledore would not likely forget. The look of rapture Myrtle had as she felt, for the first time in five decades, the warmth from the hand of another being.

The conversation then turned to Ghost facts, how she enjoyed the castle, and what changes she had observed as time moved on, needless to say that Allen was distracted from his mopping.

Dumbledore couldn't help noticing that Harry was hiding just around a different corner, listening to every word that was said after he finished his own mopping about his broom.

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Maria glared at the few Gryffindor students when they finally arrived back to the common room sometime after lunch. Calling her unhappy would be an understatement after being left alone in a room for the majority of the day.

The snake refused to consider herself clingy, she wasn't, but the person who she currently considered her primary carer seemed incredibly prone to attracting trouble when she wasn't around to keep him out of it. After the incident where she had decided not to put up with cold and stormy weather just to watch insignificant humans being unnecessarily competitive, only to find out that the one humans considered her owner was in the hospital, she was seriously considering who exactly was the carer in their interactions.

As one of the insignificant humans that she was currently having to live in close proximity with drifted through the door, strangely not with the other two he was usually so close to, Maria was also felt the need to affirm that she was  _not_  conceited, humans were conceited. Maria was a snake created from magic, her very being an entity above human understanding. The child that created her was an idiot, but that did not detract from her brilliance, his failure to understand just what he was messing with merely demoted him to a pawn in a greater scheme, rather than a genius that might have created said scheme.

But she  _wasn't_  arrogant, it didn't count if you actually deserved your place above the rest of the masses, and nothing anyone else tried to tell her would ever convince her otherwise. And the idiot children that smelled of fear near her were just ignorant of her brilliant.

The child currently approaching her, however, never smelled like fear, of course he never showed her the respect she deserved either. He was a speaker, she had known that since her creation, but he was also insolent in his lack of respect to her, and more importantly to the only person she was ever willing to admit might be above even her brilliance.

But, currently, that wasn't what she should be concerned about, what she should be concerned about was the fact that the only two people that she could stand to be around were not back, even though the rest of the children that had left that morning were.

For a short second the insolent one smelled like indecision, but then the Annoyance that she had been left behind to baby sit ran up to him and any hesitation he may have experience disappeared with the thing's appearance.

And she was alone with her worry again as Allen and Kanda continued to fail to come back to her. She was different, a creature made of magic, she was above the masses and as such she knew exactly who they were. Magic was all she was, something that should never have lasted so long or ever be capable of independent thought other than the single purpose she was created for before vanishing as the illusion of life that she had been.

Yes, she thought as the two people who were very late finally arrived, she knew how it was that the miracle of her existence continued after the mistake of an idiot had been corrected. She was created of magic, and as such she could sense things that were beyond most mortal's comprehension.

Because it wasn't the brilliance of her existence that made her so above the rest, it was the people she had been given the opportunity to serve, and that was why she would try to protect them in any way they would let her.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not sure I am happy with this chapter, but then I am not sure I am happy with most of what I have written for this book


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> parts of this are taken from the book, but they happened at a different time and in a slightly different way so I feel the need to keep them where before I was trying to only include things that had changed drastically.

When the first day of school arrived Harry and Ron still weren't talking to Hermione, however they were still all at the table for breakfast with Allen and Kanda before lessons started, along with the rest of the school. Harry was mildly surprised at the sheer number of students that had managed to drag themselves out of bed that early in the morning. Normally Breakfast was a staggered affair as people woke up at different times before the first lesson, some not even managing to eat before they had to rush out the door. Today proved to be the exception to the norm as most, if not all, of the students were present and eating thirty minutes before they needed to start heading to the class rooms.

'Ron, you can't put a rat on the table while everyone is eating, even Scabbers!' Hermione's voice brought Harry out of his mussing. Ron ignored her, like he had for the last couple of weeks, and took the wiggling animal out of his pocket and put him next to plate of food he had set aside for him to eat. Turning to Harry he explained.

'He's so thin, he needs to eat something healthy, try and fatten him up.'

As soon as he finished speaking Allen, who was next to him, murmured words that sounded horrifically like "about time" and Kanda drew his wand.

That was when everything went to hell.

Scabbers saw the wand and started running down the table. Ron started swearing at Kanda for frightening his rat. People started screaming as the rodent ran between their plates; plates were smashed as people jerked back in shock. A light flew from Kanda's wand but no words were spoken, a light that somehow managed to hit the running rat, hit him and make him change …

The whole room froze. Instead of a rat on the table a grubby little man lay among the broken plates and cups. Short and washed out in colour, something about his nose and eyes still resembled Scabbers, something about how filthy he was reminded Harry of dirty fur. He looked like a previously fat man that had lost weight rapidly, he was going bald, and all these things reminded Harry of the Rat this man had just changed from.

'Peter.' The word broke the silence that had descended when the frantic scrabbling had ceased. Lupin was standing up at the table, looking at the man in with horror showing in his eyes, an expression that was mirrored in the eyes of all the teachers.

The rat man, Peter, looked up from his position on the table and started speaking. 'R-Remus … my friend … my old friend …'

'How are you alive, Peter? Sirius killed you.' Remus was still the only one talking; no one else seemed able to interrupt the reunion.

'I escaped, I went into hiding! I knew Sirius would come for me when he realised I was alive.'

'Why would he come after you, Peter? Were you not the one who hunted him down for revenge? Was he not the spy you wanted to kill? And how would he come for you? He was in Azkaban; no one had ever escaped form Azkaban before.'

'He's got Dark powers the rest of us can only dream of! How else would he get out of there? I suppose He Who Must Not Be Named taught him a few tricks!'

'You didn't answer my question, Peter, why would he come after you, why would an innocent man go into hiding after failing to kill the person who murdered their friends?

'Unless there's something we don't know, unless you were to one who betrayed Lilly and James, unless you were the spy.'

No one was breathing at this stage.

'Me, a spy … must be out of your mind … never … don't know how you can say such a thing.' Peter started mumbling.

'I should have thought it strange, we thought there was someone sneaking around within our inner circle. Sirius, for all his brash misbehaviour and ridiculously dangerous or deadly plans, was never one to  _sneak_. You on the other hand … you always hung around people who were stronger and could look after you. Who better than Voldemort (Peter flinched), the strongest dark wizard who was gaining more power, to curry favour from?'

'But Sirius was the secret keeper! I couldn't have betrayed them if I wanted to, which I didn't!' despite his protests the man was getting pale and sweaty.

'There was a spy, we knew that. It would be just like Sirius to suggest this kind of bluff. Everyone would come after him and no one would suspect someone like you. I know it never crossed anyone's mind that you would be a spy, you weren't considered talented enough.

'And I have another question, Peter, if you were between Sirius and the muggles how is it that they all died and you escaped with nothing but a missing finger as an injury? A finger, now that I think about it, which was rather cleanly severed …'

If the man had been pale before he now looked like he was about to pass out.

'This is preposterous! If I was working for He Who Must Not Be Named why haven't I killed Harry yet in the three years I've known him?'

'Voldemort isn't the biggest bully in the playground anymore. When you showed your betrayal last time it was only as he was eliminating his final obstacle. And when that back fired you famed the only one who knew and faked your death. Of course, I may be wrong, but I assume there are quite a few people in the Ministry that would like to talk to you, and Veritaserium is such a handy truth potion.'

Peter's eyes went wide and he started blubbering and cowering.

'I never meant it to happen, what could I have done? The Dark Lord … you have no idea … he has weapons you can't imagine … I was scared, Remus, I was never like you three. I really didn't mean to … He Who Must Not Be Named forced me …'

'There was a spy for over a year before the Potters died, or are you saying there were two traitors and you were just the one that signed their death certificate?'

'He would have killed me!'

'Like you killed those muggles? You have a lot of crimes to answer for, Peter, luckily there are some Dementors at the gate and I am sure they would love to meet you.' Harry had never heard his teacher's voice go so cold. But then again, if he understood correctly, the four of them; Peter, lupin, Sirius and his Father had all been friends at school. If that was true then Peter's betrayal must have been especially hard one for him.

Suddenly the look in Peter's eyes changed, there went from fearful to cunning in a matter of seconds. 'You'll have to catch me first.' And with that he had turned back into a rat and was scampering away.

'Catch that rat!' the loud shout was Professor McGonagal, the first person other than the two "friends" to have spoken in a long time.

There was a massive scramble of hands, feet and spells as students and teachers alike were released from their trance and raced to catch the mass murderer that had been in there midst for years. The scramble was for nothing, unfortunately, as the small body managed to squirm down a whole in the stone blocks of the floor.

After the frantic movement had calmed down Professor Dumbledore's voice rang throughout the great Hall. 'Students are to be escorted back to their dormitories by their heads of house. The rest of the teachers are to follow me to my office while I contact the ministry. It is possible that we will all be required to answer questions regarding what has just happened, so I beg you all not to wonder off. Classes are obviously cancelled.'

With that the student got up from there house tables and followed in the wake of their teachers, prefects scattered along the length of the line to make sure everyone was doing as they were told. The Gryffindor house encountered problems, however, as twice Ron suddenly went white when something about the situation suddenly occurred to him and he started vomiting. Or the first time he vomited, the second time it was only dry heaving. Still, both times the whole line had to be held up as they had been instructed not to separate.

'Have you figured it out yet, Harry?' Allen's quiet voice rang in his ear and he had to try and keep himself from jumping.

'Figured what out?'

'The second Prophesy that Professor Trelawney gave us at Christmas, do you understand it now?'

Harry had to try and keep from fainting when he realised what it was that Allen was saying. When they opened the portrait Padfoot was waiting for them near the fire, and Harry soon found himself with his face berried in the dogs fur. He briefly wondered if this Familiar was also an Animagus; then realised that he didn't really care so long as he never mentioned the water coming from his eyes.

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Three days after the incident classes had started again in an attempt to return a semblance of normalcy. It was then that the article was published in the Daily Prophet, an article that consisted solely of a letter.

_Dear Wizarding World_

_For some of you who are reading this the information given will be completely new. Not many people knew, after all, that the Potters were in hiding from Voldemort at the time of their deaths, or that they did it using a Fidelius Charm. For others this information will contradict what you thought you knew about the events from twelve years ago._

_Over the last few months many questions have been asked about my sanity and the reason I escaped Azkaban twelve years after betraying my friends the Potters to Voldemort and then killing my other friend Peter Pettigrew along with twelve muggles as a servant of the dark lord. In the last few days more questions have been asked after the confirmed sighting of a living Pettigrew by hundreds of students and multiple Teachers, and the conversation that resulted._

_The first thing you should know is that I was never the Potters' secrete keeper._

_Just before the Fidelius charm was cast it was decided that that honour would go to Peter, however no one would be told about the switch. The plan was that Peter would never be tortured for the information because everyone would believe that I was the one that had it; and that I could never divulge the information when tortured because I couldn't. We knew of a spy within our friend group and this is why the plan was never told to anyone, not even Remus. This plan was my idea, something I would come to regret._

_The second thing many of you already know, or suspect, which is that Peter Pettigrew is an unregistered Animagus rat. James and I were also unregistered Animagi, and I will register as soon as I deem it safe to do so._

_The third thing I am sure many of you are wondering about, is why I allowed myself to be locked up when I was innocent. The reason is that part of me believed I deserved it. I got the Potters killed. I insisted, in my ignorance, that Peter be the secrete keeper. I believed that someone so pathetic would never be suspected, and I was right, I never suspected he was the spy we were looking for._

_The other reason was that I may not have succeeded in killing Peter, but I intended to. When I walked into the house to find my friends dead I knew he had betrayed us, I went out of my mind in grief. I tracked him down to a crowded street and, witnesses or no witnesses, I was going to kill him. Before I could, however, he cast his own curse and vanished; leaving only a finger and a street full of corpses. I assumed that he had been killed in a backfiring curse while trying to eliminate me, he was never good at casting spells, or at least he pretended he wasn't. I believed this right up until a few months ago when his picture turned up in the Daily Prophet, with an article stating that he was at Hogwarts with my God Son. It was this that drove me to escape._

_I should probably add that the reason Peter faked his death and hid as a pet rat wasn't to avoid me, it was to avoid the other supporters of Voldemort. You hear things, in Azkaban, Death Eaters screaming in their sleep about how they would kill Peter if he wasn't already dead because it was his information that lead Voldemort to his doom. Not all the Death eaters that suffered a fall of power are locked up._

_For those of you asking how I got out of Azkaban, and I suspect some would like to believe Peter was right and I used Dark Magic, I have sent a separate letter the ministry explaining exactly how I managed it, so that the breach of security may be fixed, however I doubt the method I used will ever be made public knowledge._

_I will say this in regards to some questions,_ _I think the only reason I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the Dementors couldn't suck it out of me, but it kept me sane and knowing who I am and helped me keep my powers so that when it all became too much I could transform in my cell and become my Animagus form._

_When I saw Peter in that picture I realized he was at Hogwarts with Harry, perfectly positioned to act, if one hint reached his ears that the Dark Side was gathering strength again, ready to strike at the moment he could be sure of allies and deliver the last Potter to them. If he gave them Harry, who'd dare say he'd betrayed Lord Voldemort? He'd be welcomed back with honours. So you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was still alive. It was as if someone had lit a fire in my heart, the Dementors couldn't destroy it because it wasn't a happy feeling but an obsession, and it gave me strength and cleared my mind._

_Once I escaped I was greeted by someone who knew I was innocent, though I don't know how, who promised to help me protect Harry and find a way to prove my innocence._

_Believe me; I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them._

_I will not hand myself over to the ministry a second time for a crime I didn't commit knowing that that person is still at large and still a danger to my God Son. I will remain in hiding until that man is dead or the ministry comes to a decision about my sentencing that is not made for the soul purpose of covering this incident up. I will send a representative who will negotiate on me behalf, and I will agree to any punishment this person deems appropriate._

_Until then, your sincerely_

_Sirius Black_

Hermione and Ron looked at Harry after they had finished re-reading. Harry looked only at Padfoot. Kanda and Allen sat a little way away, observing from a distance. Nobody could stop talking about what that article would mean if it was true, nobody but the trio. Harry had said nothing since he read it, and Ron hadn't said anything since his rat had turned out to be a mass murderer. The argument over the broom looked like a ridiculous thing now that they thought about.

Hermione, Hermione wasn't stupid, and neither was Harry. While researching things for Hagrid's case with Buckbeak Hermione had told them about Lupin, soon after Harry had become even more attached to Padfoot than before. Hermione suspected that he knew something he wasn't saying, but just this once she would respect his privacy, what with Ron still being mute.

Now Harry was heading off for Anti-Dementor lessons with Lupin, they were still hanging around because of Peter, and Hermione wondered just what would happen.

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	6. Chapter 6

Lupin looked up as Harry walked into the History of Magic classroom, he noticed that “Padfoot” was walking at his heels. The boy looked slightly uncomfortable and he waited for him to tell him what was on his mind.

‘I know,’ he finally whispered, ‘I know about you, what you are, Hermione figured it out from the essay and she told me and Ron. I also know, or suspect, who Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs were.’ With this Harry gave a pointed glance at the dog beside him who looked rather sheepish.

Lupin was surprised to hear those names, seeing this Harry explained. ‘I was given the Marauder’s Map, Fred and George found it in their first year and gave it to me so I could sneak out to Hogsmead.’ Lupin didn’t really have words for that.

They sat in silence for a while before Lupin finally found his voice.

‘Do you want to cancel this lesson? Or find someone else to teach it?’ now it was Harry who looked startled.

‘No, why?’

‘Well, the Dementors will most likely be removed soon, and most people would be a little uncomfortable being taught by a werewolf.’ Lupin was proud of how steady his voice was.

‘What’s that got to do with anything? Dementors will still be around no matter what, and I can’t have a repeat of the last game, not that I have a boom, but still. And why would you being a werewolf change anything? You’re the best teacher here, I just thought you should know that I knew, or something like that. It doesn’t really matter.’ The boy rambled a little, but then, Lupin thought he would to.

‘Not even the bit about … Padfoot?’ he watched as the dog hunkered down and tried to look innocent, something that was hard when you looked like that.

‘I’m annoyed at the fact that he’s lying, or lied, to me; and at some stage we are going to have a talk, but I can … understand, sort of, why he would.’

There was silence once again as they looked at the dog who seemed to considering something, eventually he started pawing at the collar. Once Harry had removed it he moved away a little and became a man before their very eyes. It was the man whose face was in the _Daily Prophet_ , but slightly healthier and defiantly cleaner, and his cloths looked fairly good. He would have been standing proudly except his glance at the door clearly displayed his anxiety. Then he looked at Harry and spoke.

‘I don’t want to lie, and your right we do need to talk, however my current … carer … will kill me if he finds out that I transformed without his permission, and will throw me to the ministry if I get caught.

‘But before that, I have something I want you to think about before we have that talk.

‘Your parents made me your god father, and they appointed me as the person to look after you if something were to happen to them. If, when, I get my name cleared properly … you can come live with me if you want; though I won’t blame you if you don’t.

‘Just think carefully before you decide, though the offer will always stand.’

With that Sirius Black the man was once again Padfoot the dog. Harry carefully put the collar back on and the dog sat at his heals while he turned to Professor Lupin.

‘So how are you going to teach me? And what’s in the case?’ Lupin looked slightly relieved as the conversation turned back to fairly normal topics.

‘What’s in the case is another Boggart. I’ve been combing the castle since Tuesday with no luck, in the end I asked Mr Walker since he “stole” the other. Strange boy that one; he even asked if I could return it.’

From there Lupin explained why the Boggart would work and what exactly he would have to do. Even as Harry was listening to what Lupin said he was thinking that he and the others needed to update their list

The first two times he failed spectacularly, both times he woke up to both Lupin and his God Father sitting over him watching him carefully. For the third time he thought carefully about the memory, and he found one he thought might work.

When the Boggart was released he created a _large_ silvery cloud that started to take a half form; antlers, hooves, something he suspected would become a stag.

 _Prongs_.

The Dementor ended up back in its box, and both Lupin and Padfoot looked at him in amazement.

He didn’t tell him what he had chosen, just held it close. It wasn’t even a memory, not really; it was the knowledge that there was a person who was actually willing to look after him, someone who had offered to take him away from the Dursley’s for _good_. Even if Sirius didn’t know how those people treated him he wanted _Harry,_ his God Son, and that was not a feeling he was used to.

It felt good.

Lupin didn’t think he needed more lessons, but recommended he practice so he could cast one without the same level of drain, but to make sure he had supervision.

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Harry walked into the Gryffindor tower after his lesson to see Hermione hidden behind a tower of books and Ron sitting next to her in silence, it had become a common sight over the last two days. Now he joined them and pulled out a separate quill and parchment, but didn’t start writing yet.

‘I know we have a lot to do, Homework, Hagrid’s case, and hopefully Quidditch,’ he began, getting their attention. ‘But last year we thought it would be best to keep an eye on Allen and Kanda, and I think it’s time we actually attempted to do that.’

The other two looked at each other, after the scene with Peter Pettigrew and then getting swamped by homework the two had completely forgotten about Allen and Kanda.

‘Are you sure Harry? I mean, no offence, Hermione, but I don’t think you can take any more on your plate.’

Harry looked at them. ‘We tried earlier in the year, and they managed to avoid us. I know it’s possible that I’m over reacting, but can we just make a list now of what we know and then decide whether it’s worth it or not?’ He was trying to be calm, they could see it, but there was an edge of something in his voice that he couldn’t quiet supress.

So they made a list of everything from the two years they knew them; when they finally looked at the finished product all of them where a little surprised at its length.

  * Conversation where they were discussing not being human
  * Survived looking directly into the eyes of a basilisk
  * Where not on the train so they had other means of transport (Hermione wanted to know how)
  * Allen wasn’t effected by Boggarts and collected them (‘Lupin borrowed one off him,’ Harry informed them.)
  * Extreme reaction to Dementors meaning extreme trauma.
  * Admitted to being insane
  * Keeping Sirius Black as a pet dog (Hermione and Ron hadn’t known about _that_ )
  * Were the ones that cast the spell to reveal Peter Pettigrew (Ron flinched at the mention of his former rat)
  * Cried blood (even Ron knew that that was weird.)
  * Avoided them expertly when they were trying to spy
  * Had been sneaking out to Hogsmead since they were first years (something Harry had forgotten to mention earlier)
  * Already knew all the secret passages even without a map
  * Were wired looking ( _“Ron!”_ Hermione said)
  * Dementors had tried to “kiss” Allen (‘what the hell does that mean?’ ‘Shut it, Ron, we’ll find out.’)
  * Kanda insisted, and had been right, that Allen would wake up when it shouldn’t have been possible. (‘Did you both forget?’)
  * That Professor Trelawney was looking at Allen and Kanda when she made the prophesies (‘Hermione, she isn’t just a fraud.’)
  * Allen’s reaction to the prophecies (‘something about being retired, and the world needing a better saviour.’)



Ron looked at the list, Hermione had long ago put away her books, and Harry was looking at them expectantly.

‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell us that Padfoot was Black!’ Hermione finally found her voice.

‘I had other things on my mind, and I only figured it out once you told me what lupin was!’

‘How?’ Ron asked.

‘“Mooney, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs”’ where the four names on the map, Lupin, Sirius, Peter and my Dad were good friends in school, Lupin was a werewolf; so “Mooney,” the others were Animagi and I knew Peter was a rat (‘stop flinching, Ron,’ said Hermione.) so “Wormtail”, when Lupin first saw our Padfoot he looked horrified. Everything just fitted.’

‘You could be wrong,’ Hermione pointed out. ‘It could be coincidence.’

‘Except I confronted them in my lesson just now and they confirmed it.’

They sat in silence for a little while as they considered just how ridiculous everything was.

‘But we do agree that this is a pretty ridiculous list? I mean, we would suspect others with just one of these incidents!’ Harry brought the conversation back on topic.

‘I agree Mate; we should look for them every chance we get.’

Somewhere else in the castle Kanda was turning Padfoot’s collar pink for disobeying orders and transforming on school grounds.

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After Slytherin beat Ravenclaw things fell into an almost routine, a very busy one as Harry and Hermione had a lot on their plates. Harry was mostly concerned with his Quidditch and homework, reading books Hermione suggested to research information for Hagrid when he had time. Hermione concentrated on _all_ her homework, with the other two wondering how she got to all her classes, and looked up titles of books for Harry and Ron to read when they had time. Ron, at first, continued to look rather sick about “Scabbers” while doing the research for Hagrid; and then try and befriend Allen and Kanda when he had gotten over his rat.

Of course, every now and then there would be some rather large incidents of variety, but oh well, they were at least sort of getting things done.

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The first situation involved Harry, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny finally getting Ron to tell them exactly why he was so disturbed about the rat, and why it had been bad enough to throw up that first day.

They were not entirely sure how they felt about the answer.

‘Come on Ronnykins,’ Fred said, trying to sound understanding and failing. ‘Just get over it! Your rat’s not a rat and you need a new pet, he was a horrible rat anyway.’

‘Yeah, Ron, you complained about him all the time! I don’t see why your so upset.’ chimed in George.

‘You don’t get it!’ Ron exclaimed, slightly too loud for the great hall. ‘I’m not upset that I lost my Rat! I’m upset that the thing that I cared about and looked after was a mass murderer and played a part in the deaths of my best friends Parents!’ Harry had to admit that, when put that way, Ron had every right to his grief.

‘Well it’s not like you _knew_ ,’ Hermione stated. ‘And you weren’t the only one; he was also Percy’s rat for longer, so technically he was just as guilty of harbouring a criminal as you were.’ Percy, who was sitting rather close, went white as a sheet when he heard that; Harry thought that he was probably worrying about his reputation.

‘Did you have to say it like that?’ Ron groaned as he put his head on the table.

‘Ron,’ Harry started, ‘I liked Scabbers, so it shocks me very much that he was the reason my parents are dead.  I don’t hold it against you. Are you good now?’ Harry said in that voice you use with little children. Ron spoke from his place on the table.

‘I let him sleep in my bed. He was a dirty old man and I let him sleep in my bed because I thought he was a rat.’ Ginny suddenly looked like she was going to be sick as the full implications of what Ron had said sunk in, and then so did everyone else who heard.

After that they decided that Ron had every right to his trauma, and that they would leave him to it.

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Another incident changed the routine slightly, but Harry was rather happy about this one.

McGonagall had given him back his Fire bolt.

He was wondering around the halls when he ran into her, literally, and she handed him back the broom with a slight smile and a small explanation.

‘In light of the recent … event, it was decided that it was unlikely that it was jinxed so we didn’t look for anything too complex. However because you didn’t know who sent it to you we did do some checks for the basics, just in case. All turned up clean.

‘Congratulations, Potter, this is a wonderful broom. You have a very good friend out there somewhere.’ And with that she walked away.

As the broom got fawned over Harry looked at the dog standing by the fire, which happened to be looking very smug at that moment, and thought he did indeed have a very good friend.

He hoped the ministry made a decision soon; because he was rather looking forward to leaving the Dursley’s house.

Another good thing was that Ron cheered up immensely after being allowed to ride the fantastic broom.

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_OVA; letter to the editor_

‘You can’t write that.’ Allen said as he read the bit of paper over Sirius’s shoulder. Sirius looked up from his frantic scribbling.

‘Why not?’ Sirius asked, rather like an immature child.

‘Because this will become an official document released to the public, trying to gain understanding about what happened. You can’t just write something insulting about Snape, or sensitive information about Lupin in it, without expecting some sort of backlash.’

‘But it’s true!’

‘Doesn’t matter, you have to be polite when writing to a paper. We have to work on your expression as well, you’ve written “And then” roughly thirty times.’

Sirius glared at the younger looking boy leaning over his shoulder while wearing a disappointed look as he mentioned this fact.

The argument was about to escalate when Kanda piped up from his position on the bed. They were in the shrieking shack while Black was in his human form trying to write his letter to the paper.

‘I recommend not arguing with him, it’s a waste of time and breath because he doesn’t listen, plus we have to get back to school before anyone realises we’re missing.’

Sirius reluctantly nodded and went to correct his letter with Allen’s input. Kanda sighed; it was going to be a long night.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentioned underage, nothing explicit so it is up to the reader to decide how far they went, though I am of the opinion that they stopped before it went to far.

About a week before Gryffindor was due to play Ravenclaw they had another interesting occurrence, this one was a surprising help to figuring out Allen and Kanda. It came in the form of a conversation in the common room just after the two in question went to bed, or just before.

‘Miss Guinevere,’ Harry wondered who on earth Allen was talking to, ‘Do you need help with your potions Assignment? I thought I would ask since you were so kind as to help me in charms.’ Harry was very curious as to why Ginny was blushing.

‘That would be great,’ the redhead mumbled. ‘I’ll see you in the Library at lunch?’

‘That’s perfect, see you then.’ Harry watched Ginny as she stared after Allen and his shadow with a bright pink dusting her cheeks.

‘What was that about?’ Ron asked. ‘I can’t remember the last time anyone has called you Guinevere.’

‘They’re perfect,’ Ginny murmured, still looking out of it. ‘Smart, hansom, Allen is always so polite and respectful and he manages to pull it off. Kanda’s distant but really that’s fine as well, Luna says she prefers him like that.’

‘What are you going on about?’ Ron was getting frustrate. ‘And how would he help you with Potions? And how did you help him in Charms?’ Ron looked ready to burst.

Ginny finally came down from were ever she was and glared at him. ‘You really are oblivious, Ron; Kanda and Allen are in my class. They both compete for top so of course they could help me. As for Charms, when Allen was sick he was struggling with one of them and I helped him out.’

‘But what was all that about them being “Perfect”?’ Ron asked.

‘Oh Ronald, you’re such a guy. I don’t have time to explain it, ask Hermione.’ And with that she left. Ron didn’t ask Hermione as she was currently buried under a pile of books and looking frazzled.

Harry was wondering about something else.

‘I forgot that they were in the same class as Ginny. Does that mean that they share a dorm with Collin?’ Ron blinked at him.

‘Yeah, yeah it would. Why didn’t we think of this sooner? Half a year wasted sneaking around when we could have just asked the other people in our house!’

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The next day Harry managed to covertly ask Collin about his dorm mates, mentioning Ginny’s comments and asking his opinion. There it was revealed that the Duo often snuck out at night.

All this information, of course, was added to the list.

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Ron carefully walked down the hall, trying to make as little noise as possible. It was the day before the game and Harry and Hermione were in the library studying, while he was using the Marauder’s Map to try and Follow Allen and Kanda. The two had gone into an empty, little used class room a while ago and hadn’t moved, so he was the one elected to go and see what they were up to.

As he approached he heard heavy breathing and what sounded like crashing. He walked a little faster to the door, now that he was more confident he wouldn’t be heard, but decided not to betray his presence as there was no screaming. Trying to be a little sneakier now that the Map said he was right outside the classroom he leant down to look through the key hole.

He wished he could un-see what was on the other side.

Allen was sitting on the desk where Kanda had apparently thrown him; Kanda was standing right in front of him. Hats and gloves were on the ground as well as a few other articles of clothing.  Allen had his legs wrapped around Kanda’s hips and both boys had their hands in each other’s hair, holding their faces together. Both were breathing heavy with the occasional gasp as hands began to move to _other_ places. Suddenly Kanda started mumbling something and Ron strained to listen.

‘What about the idiotic trio, they were so keen on following us earlier, what if they walk in?’

‘Bakanda, don’t you think I checked? Harry is in the Library, and those three rarely separate, where he goes they follow. Don’t worry about it.’

How the hell did they know Harry was in the Library? Did they have some way of tracking him; was that how they avoided them?

The thought should have been at the front of his mind, instead it was pushed to the back by the way the two boys _a year younger than him_ were grabbing each other. Ron had never seen anything like it; other than that one time he stole a picture from one of his older brothers, he couldn’t remember which, but that had been of between a man and women, not two boys.

‘Arren.’

‘Yuu.’

The two breathy words were the last warning he got before the boys started taking off the rest of each other’s cloths. _That_ woke Ron up enough to realise that he probably shouldn’t be around for what came next.

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Harry and Hermione came back to the common room to see Ron, white as a ghost, staring into the fire and looking rather horrified.

‘Weren’t you following Allen and Kanda? What happened? Did you see what anything that might give us a clue to why they were sneaking out at night?’ Hermione’s words made Ron jump, then he started look rather queasy, like he had last year just before he started bringing up slugs.

‘I found them, and if that’s what they’re doing at night I didn’t need to know. Oh pour Ginny, my sister, what’s she going to think if she finds out? It was horrendous, disturbing, no one should see that, it’s not natural. And at that age, what’s wrong with them?’ Hermione and Harry looked at each other as Ron continued to ramble. Eventually Harry thought it best to remind Ron of the original point of this.

‘What were they doing, Ron? You haven’t actually said.’

Ron looked at them. He looked like he had just after Pettigrew had been revealed. ‘They were, you know … where they … with the clothes ... and other things …’ Harry and Hermione were now even more confused. ‘Geese, I can’t say it!’

Ron seemed to be thinking about how to communicate what it was that he wanted them to know.

‘You know how Ginny was acting like a girl yesterday? With the going on about “hansom” and “perfect”?’ Hermione snorted at the phrasing but Harry nodded. ‘Well, I think she will be very disappointed since both of them are claimed.’

Harry raised an eyebrow. ‘So … they were sneaking out to go see their girlfriends? How is that unnatural?' Ron shook his head.

‘They weren’t meeting up with _girl_ friends; they were meeting up with _each other_. You know when your Parents give you the talk about “when a man and woman love each other very much” and all that embarrassing stuff? Well … they were doing that without the woman, you know, just them.’

Ron watched with smug satisfaction as the other two slowly ceased to function at this revelation. He only hoped it didn’t affect Harry’s game the next day.

Somewhere in Hogwarts a dog did everything in his power to avoid one particular section of the castle.

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The day after the match Harry finally got the courage to ask Lupin what a Dementors kiss was. After his use of a Patronus on the field he thought he could use that as a lead in to the conversation. He was right.

‘Professor,’ he said after they had talked about Patronus, ‘What’s under a Dementors hood?’ he had decided that it would be best to just ask generally about the Dementor before mentioning the conversation he had overheard. As it turned out the first question answered his second, though he wished it hadn’t.

‘Didn’t … didn’t the teachers say something about one of them trying to do that to a student during the other match? Didn’t Professor Flitwick say something about that while Allen was in the Hospital Wing?’ Harry was disgusted; now he knew why the teachers had been so horrified.

‘So you heard that did you? Or did Hermione tell you? Yes, one of the Dementors looked like it was going to Kiss Allen. Dumbledore thought it might of the way he was when we got there, despite Flitwick’s assurances.’

‘Why?’ Harry couldn’t think of anything that the boy could have done to deserve that.

‘I don’t know,’ Lupin muttered. ‘And neither does anyone else.’

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The day before Hagrid left for London the trio snuck down to his cabin. Over the last few weeks that had sent him down material for his case, now they were going to go down and make sure he was alright.

‘You don’t need luck Hagrid,’ Hermione told him. ‘You’ve got this, just remember all the information we gave you.’

‘I’m not sure if it’s helpful or not, but the rest of the Ministry is tied up with the Black Case. Heard they should be comin’ to a decision any day now. Hopefully they will think this one isn’t so bad compared to that.

Harry wasn’t sure if it would be helpful or not, but he hoped that both resulted with the verdict of “innocent”.

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After Harry had snuck into Hogsmead, (he still didn’t have I signed note but Hermione agreed to cover for him if someone asked) and had his disastrous encounter with Snape; only to be saved by his friends and Lupin, they got a letter from Hagrid.

_Dear Harry, Hermione and Ron,_

_We won! Thank you for your help._

_We get back tomorrow and were intending to celebrate, I will meet you at the entrance at one and we can have lunch._

_Hagrid_

So Sunday afternoon the trio headed down with Hagrid to his cabin with food from the kitchens and a stock of butter beer. Buckbeak was sitting on Hagrid’s bed again and eating ferrets while the humans help themselves to banquet of sweets before them. Hermione then mentioned the hearing.

‘I’m so glad you won Hagrid!.’

‘Nearly didn’t,’ slurred Hagrid who had been drinking whisky instead of butter beer. ‘I got up there and I was so nervous, got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin’ there in black robes an’ I kep’ droppin’ me notes and forgettin’ all them dates yeh looked up fer me, you three. An’ then Lucius Malfoy stood up an’ said his bit, and the Committee looked like it was jus’ gonna do exac’ly what he told em.

‘Then this bloke walked in, all easy charm. I don’t know who he was, he just introduced himself as Mr Mikk and started talking. He knew all the dates, knew all of ‘em too, Lucius looked furious that he was there. Then after a few minutes of him talking they said he was absolu’ely right and pronounced Buckbeak free.’

The trio just looked at their friend. None of them recognised the name Mr Mikk. After a while they moved back to their celebration but the three sober people present were still thinking about the stranger who had helped Hagrid long into the next night.

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Malfoy was not pleased when he heard that the bird had gotten off, in fact he was furious. In care of magical creatures the next day he was especially snarky, terrorising the other students and the animal’s they were meant to be caring for. In the end Hagrid deducted points and gave him a detention for his behaviour.

As they were walking back to the castle the trio could hear him carrying on.

‘I don’t know what they were thinking! That oaf doesn’t deserve to be a teacher, and that creature deserved to die! Fathers furious, he’s been talking of all the ways he can get Dumbledore sacked because he’s most likely the one that …’ and on he rambled.

Right up until Hermione slapped him before she threatened him with a wand. Harry and Ron had to restrain her before she calmed down.

Part of them wasn’t surprised that she missed charms, or that she walked out of Divination.  With the way she was acting they wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up in the Hospital Wing.

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It was the next day that Harry and Sirius managed to hide in the Shrieking shack and have a much-needed conversation. By the end both felt just that little bit better.

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It was a full week after Buckbeak was pardoned that another Article was published in the Daily Prophet concerning Black, this one announcing his innocence.

The article was long but it had barely any information, and even less that was believable. Despite many attempts the newspaper had been unable to confirm the identity of Black’s representative. There was a lot of speculation about this but for once the Ministry was doing its job to keep certain things _out_ of the public’s eye.

Another bit of information that was unavailable was Black’s Animagus form. Again there was speculation, and someone said that it was known to the Ministry but was being removed from the registry for safety reasons.

As well as Black’s pardon the Article also contained the announcement that one Peter Pettigrew had been stripped of his honours and was now wanted for the murder of twelve Muggles, failing to register as an Animagus, fraud, and several other things.

But Harry didn’t care about that. His Godfather had been proven innocent, and he would never have to see the Dursley’s again.

The next time he cast a patronus, he would choose this memory.

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For the rest of the day after the announcement there was no sign of Padfoot, but at breakfast the next day Harry got a letter form a strange little owl that was definitely not Hedgewig.

_Dear Harry,_

_I’m sorry I suddenly left. Now that my name has been cleared I have to finalise the legal documents to officially have you live with me. I also need to do some major cleaning of the old Black Family home as no one had been in it for a long time and it was a mess even then. My aim is to at least have your room clean by the end of school, I am afraid this is likely to be how we will spend at least the beginning of your holidays._

_I think I should warn you, someone started asking questions about your treatment from your aunt and uncle. When I applied for the papers it was hinted that there may be an inquiry into this._

_There are somethings we never got round to discussing the last time we talked you, though some I suspect you already knew. It was I who sent you the Firebolt, Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from Gringotts vault number seven hundred and eleven – my own. Kanda suggested it and put it in your room. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays’ worth of presents from your godfather._

_I would also like to apologise for the fright I think I gave you, that first night last year when you left your uncle’s house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you._

_If you need me before the end of term just send Hedgewig, she will find me. Otherwise I will pick you up from the train station._

_See you then_

_Sirius_

_PS I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it’s my fault he no longer has a rat._

Harry didn’t think he had ever seen Ron so happy as when he got the news.

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	8. Chapter 8

It was right in the middle of the Easter holidays that Hermione was approached by Allen and Kanda. She was sitting in the almost empty library trying desperately to do some work in the five minutes before it closed when the two came and stood in front of her. Allen spoke first.

‘Hermione, at the beginning of the year it looked like we could be friends, however your ridiculous amount of homework seems to have made that impossible. You do not look well, Hermione, and I refuse to just sit back and watch you half kill yourself.

‘Hand me you Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration homework, Pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy stuff to Kanda. We’ll write out your essays, no don’t protest, and you can read them later. In the meantime put your head on the desk, or lay down on the floor, and have a nap. You look so tired I’m scared you’re going to faint.’

Against her better judgment, she only had five minutes before the library closed, she put her head down and went to sleep.

She woke up just before the librarian came to kick them out, surprised at how refreshed she felt after such a short nap. Then she looked over at Kanda and Allen and realised that it was impossible for only five minutes to have passed.

All her homework and essays for those six subjects were completed, ink dry, and stacked neatly.

‘Don’t worry about studying; all the information you need for the exams is in these Essays. Just make sure you read over them, but that should be slightly easier than writing all of this out by yourself.’

And with that the two second years walked out of the library, leaving the third year girl to pack up her perfectly completed homework in shock.

Though she had to admit she felt better than she had in months.

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It was the last night of the Easter Holidays and Hermione, much to the confusion of the other students, had completed all her work. Now she sat staring at the second year duo as they sat down together away from everyone else. She was very suspicious of them; even more so after the incident with her homework last week, and she knew that they were together; something she still hadn’t come to grips with.

But she needed to pay them back for the homework, and she was very curious.

Hesitantly she walked up to them and cleared her throat to get their attention. ‘First I wanted to thank you for your help last week –’

She was cut off by Allen. ‘There is no need for that Hermione, aren’t we supposed to be friends?’ Despite how suspicious the three of them felt, she felt herself blush. Ginny wasn’t joking; they were gorgeous, and smart, and a year wasn’t _that_ much …

She shook the thoughts from her head – they were _together_ – and continued.

‘I was also wondering … about Dementors,’ Allen lost his easy smile. ‘It’s just, Harry is also effected by them so he learnt the Patronus charm, and I know that it’s a ridiculously hard spell but, given the effect they have on you, wouldn’t it be a good idea to –’ Allen cut her off once again.

‘It doesn’t work, Hermione. I did try to learn it, and succeeded, but … by the time I know a Dementor is close by I’m already out of it. The only way a Patronus would help me is if I had it active everywhere I go, and that’s not very practical.’ He looked so sad as he said it; she wondered what he would have to have survived to be affected instantaneously. She turned to Kanda.

‘What if Kanda learnt it?’ now Kanda looked rather annoyed. She didn’t understand his reaction at first.

‘I do know it,’ at her look he glared and continued. ‘But a second year casting a complete Patronus isn’t something you want every busy-body knowing. Besides that, this is a school isn’t it? I shouldn’t have to be worrying about casting one here. What are the teachers doing that a child was nearly Kissed during a Quidditch match?’ The venom of his words increased as he continued. At the end he grabbed Allen’s hand and dragged him to the Portrait to leave.

Allen threw back one line as they left. ‘You don’t have to know everything, Hermione, remember that.’

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The final Quidditch game of the year had just finished with Gryffindor as the winner, and Dumbledore was exceptionally please. He knew he shouldn’t pick favourites; but could help being slightly biased towards the lion’s house. Besides, McGonagall needed a victory every now and then.

He was whistling slightly to himself when he opened his office door to two students sitting at his desk. His whistling stopped and he stood still; they hadn’t been to see him since the incident with the Dementor, not even after the incident with Peter Pettigrew.

‘To what do I own this pleasure?’ Dumbledore asked.

‘You’ve been trying to stop the processes for Harry to move in with Sirius.’ It wasn’t a question. ‘We were rather hoping you would instead support the decision instead of hindering it,’ Allen finished, today he didn’t appear to be in the mood to mince words.

Dumbledore was speechless. Surely they should know about the sacrifice, about the wards.

‘He’s safer at the Dursley’s. There’s magic there that protects –’ he didn’t get any further.

‘What good is protection from outside forces if you try to slit your wrists yourself?’ Kanda interrupted. ‘We know about the protection measures, we also know that others can be placed on the Black house. Our question is; do you know how they treat him?’

Did he know how they treated him? Of course he did. He thought it disgusting, but there was no other option. The boy had so many enemies … to leave him anywhere else would have been the child’s death. There was also the fact that any wizarding family would have treated him differently, even the Weasley’s didn’t treat him like their other children when he was over.

Allen started speaking. ‘When you dropped him off at the Dursley’s you wanted him to have a normal life.’ Dumbledore didn’t have time to wonder how he knew that. ‘But he didn’t, he spent the first few years being abused, neglected and treated like a slave. All he has ever wanted was to get away from them, up until this year his happiest memory was when he was told he could leave for a small portion on the year. He can’t trust people, he didn’t know what it felt like to wanted, he doesn’t even know when to ask for help.

‘Sirius doesn’t see him as “Harry Potter the Saviour” he sees him as a child he was told to look after by his friends. He want’s Harry as his son, not a slave or social status. Let Harry have this; you and I both know what has to happen in the future, let him have this happiness, to be normal for once.’

Dumbledore felt sick, he knew it had been bad but he hadn’t realised just what impact it would have had to grow up like that, he suspected he still didn’t. He knew that if Harry was a Horcrux only one fate awaited him, but to have someone else confirm it was something he had never wished for.

‘And the Blood Protection, what will he do without that? What will he do instead to make sure some old supporter of Voldemort doesn’t find him?’

For the first time during this visit he saw Allen smile and speak in a light tone. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. These things have a habit of working themselves out. Something I have learnt over the years is that if Destiny has a plan for you then there is no way to escape it, no matter how much we may try.’

After the boys had left Dumbledore wondered how someone who looked so young could talk as if he had seen the different ages leave him behind. He looked at the portraits for answers but they just shrugged and sent each other covert smiles at shared knowledge he didn’t have.

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Sirius looked around the room with no small amount of pride. Even with magic it had still been a hell of a job to clear out the creatures that had been living there and remove the years’ worth of junk that had piled up. Smiling, he turned to leave to collect Harry’s stuff from his aunt and uncle, and jumped a mile when he saw Allen and Kanda standing in the doorway.

‘Sorry to intrude,’ Allen stated, ignoring his reaction, ‘but there are somethings we need to discuss with you before Harry gets here.’

‘First; you have to be mature,’ Kanda took over. ‘Twelve years in prison should mean you’ve grown up, but we feel the need to make sure. No encouraging misbehaviour or rule breaking for fun, be someone who can help with problems, not cause them.’

‘Second; we need to talk about Harry’s safety,’ Allen told him. ‘Before he was protected by a type of blood bound magic, if he moves in with you this will disappear. I would prefer it did rather than leave him with those idiots, I think they’re just as much a hazard to him as Voldemort, but this does mean we have to do something else instead.

‘One option would be for you to also take care of his cousin,’ seeing his look Allen explained. ‘The kids not that bad, just ridiculously misguided. He may not have magic but I think we can work around it. There are other methods of protection, you would know about some of them, but this is one you should think carefully about, and talk to Harry before you make a decision’

Once Allen had finished talking both boys looked at him as if waiting for a response.

‘I will talk to Harry and Dumbledore before I make any decisions about safety. And trust me, I have grown up a lot since my days at Hogwarts.’ He knew the grief was showing in his eyes. Allen just smiled.

‘Excellent! But no bad mouthing Snape to Harry, the two have enough problems and you’re too prejudice.’ And with that the boys vanished.

Ten minutes later half the rooms were clean with all their contents piled in other rooms. Sirius never saw them do it.

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The exams ended and the end of year approached and Harry realised that this was actually the first year where he hadn’t spent some time during exams in the medical wing. He didn’t know how he felt about this fact.

Professor Lupin resigned from the position of DADA teacher, during the investigation into Sirius certain things _had_ managed to end up in the Daily Prophet which made continuing after the end of term rather difficult. Harry was rather sad to see him go, but even that couldn’t dull his spirits just a few days before he officially got on the train out of Hogwarts.

His moving in with Sirius had been approved; he would never have to see the Dursleys again.

Ron and Hermione watched him practically bounce towards the train. They had never seen him like this in the three years they had known him. Neither knew what had caused his excellent mood; and neither quite had the guts to ask. Just before they finished putting their stuff on the train they saw Allen and Kanda, heading in the wrong direction.

‘Hey!’ Ron yelled. ‘Where are you two going?’

Allen and Kanda turned around, looked at each other, and answered with the kind of expression that questioned your sanity.

‘Home,’ they both said in unison.

‘But the trains this way,’ Hermione pointed out.

‘So?’ they asked, again in unison. The trio didn’t bother asking for an explanation, they just gave up.

Harry had something else on his mind. ‘Do you to live together?’

Kanda suddenly had a rather guarded expression. ‘Yes, why?’

‘Do you have to hide the fact that you’re together at home as well? Or are you free to do what you want in that regard?’

Both boys had identical expressions. It was the expression you had when you had a horrifying suspicion about what the other person was talking about and hoped you were wrong.

‘What?’ Allen said with an empty smile and polite tone.

‘When you’re at home, do you have to pretend that your just friends or do you act like boyfriends? How does that work anyway?’ Harry said it as if he was discussing the weather. Allen and Kanda were both incredibly pale.

‘How did you find out?’ Allen finally managed to almost gasp.

‘Ron looked through a key whole when he heard something going on behind the closed door.’ Harry still hadn’t put any emotion into his words. Ron and Hermione watched the conversation with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment.

Suddenly Kanda was glaring, he was the fiercest that Harry had ever seen him and the boy stepped back. ‘If you tell anyone you will regret it.’

Harry gulped and nodded. ‘Wasn’t planning to, just felt sorry for you if you had to pretend even when you were at home.’

Allen suddenly smiled sadly, not completely hiding his relief. ‘No, we don’t have to hide at home.

‘See you later Harry, Hermione … Ron.’ With that the boys were walking away again.

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On the Hogwarts Express Harry could barely stop jumping in his seat, Hermione told them about her dropping some subjects, and Ron invited Harry to stay during the holidays, And mentioned the Quidditch World Cup.

If Harry had been bouncing before he looked like he would hit the roof now.

‘That should be great! But I’ll have to check with Sirius, if I just moved in he may need help getting things organised …’ Harry trailed off when he saw their faces. ‘What?’

‘What do you mean “what”?’ Hermione nearly shrieked, ‘what was the about Sirius? What happened to your Aunt and Uncle?’

Harry looked rather sheepish. ‘Well, before my parents died they asked Sirius if he would look after me if something happened to them. Now that his name has been cleared he can do that.’

‘So, what, you’re just moving in with him? Where does he even live?’ Ron sounded incredulous

‘He has his Family’s old house, and he is my godfather, my Parent’s wanted me to live with him if something happened to them.’ They both just looked at him. ‘It got finalised the day before exams.’ They continued to stare.

‘How come you didn’t tell us?’ Hermione gasped.

Harry just shrugged and looked sheepish again. ‘I forgot.’ He mumbled.

The rest of the train trip passed as normal. When they arrived at the station, sure enough, Sirius was waiting for him next to Mr and Mrs Weasley; having a great old chat despite the stares of those around them.

After they had said their goodbyes and Agreed to Harry Going over for the world cup Harry walked with Sirius to the car.

‘Harry, there are somethings we need to discuss; including your Aunt and Uncle.

‘You haven’t changed your mind have you? You’re not sending me back to them are you?’ Sirius frowned when he saw Harry’s terrified look.

‘No, you’re not going back to them,’ Harry looked relieved. ‘Quite the opposite, actually, they are being investigated by the muggle government for child abuse.’ Harry felt his mouth drop open.

‘The two things we needed to discuss about them were actually related. The most important is that there were wards on their house to protect you, wards that only work if you are living with someone related to your mum by blood.

‘The second thing is that, if they are proven guilty of child abuse, it is very possible their son will be required to go into foster care.’ Sirius took a deep breath before he continued. ‘And someone asked me if I would be willing to look after him as well.’

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliff hanger!!!! And the end of the Prisoner of Azkaban Arc, this was a hell of a lot longer than I intended.


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